Sid's younger brother Mike Tillett "used to be in the business," he says, but now works for Verizon.įor Florida's independent, small-scale citrus growers, it's never easy to stick with it. His father, Ben Tillett - who made a statewide name for himself in growing, gift fruit shipping and, yes, juicing - passed away in January at the age of 87. Still, the business chugs along, with Sid Tillett's two sons helping to haul and process the fruit, his mother Vera doing the bookkeeping (when she isn't crocheting and knitting sweaters and baby blankets for sale), and two employees minding the store for six months out of the year, November to May.
Unassuming from the outside, full of character on the inside, The Citrus Place is true homegrown Floridiana, nurtured on the same land Tillett's grandfather farmed until the 1950s. In fact, this juice tastes kind of like an orange blossom smells - heady, almost overpowering.
Three or four separate strands of sweetness combine with a few golden grace notes of tartness, delivering a rich, sunny mouthfeel that must be close to what a bee senses as it pulls nectar straight from the blossom. If you're new at this, though, and accustomed to the store-bought orange juice most Floridians drink, the contents of that little plastic cup will hit your tongue like a revelation. "Folks tell me, 'Well, your juice isn’t as good as it used to be - but it’s still better than what we can get at the grocery store.'" "I describe the greening as a metallic taste," he says thoughtfully - the way he says everything.
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